My old Doctor #9 left and I was assigned a new Doctor #10.
Frustrations.
DHR can’t retain doctors.
I was not allowed to have this latest appointment on telemedicine. Unclear who made that decision. Front office said the Doctor, Doctor said the front office. He has now applied for permission to do telemedicine. He wants more appointments but less blood work. Ok by me only if they are telemedicine.
I’m not convinced that anyone looks at the blood work until I call. Pretty sure they don’t.
Front office made arrangements for me to check in from my car and check vitals from my car Then they called me when they were ready for me That was nice, I’ve spent as long as 4 hours waiting for an appointment.
Next day I had a port flush in ten same office. I had nearly an hours wait to check in in a crowded waiting room. One guy took his mask off to eat lunch and another had his mask hanging from his ear I don’t even want to count the number of people with noses out of masks. I had to ask the nurse who did the port flush to fix her mask. Again the nose was exposed. Almost asked twice but she saw me doing stink eye and fixed it.
I got sick. Was it from the waiting room? Seems likely.
Both infusion / port flush and doctors appointment ask every visit if I have ever smoked. I am finding it more and more insulting as time goes on. Twice in two days is too many times.
I still don’t have the promised appointment for the next doctor visit. They were going to call me. I won’t hold my breath. Somehow I need enough warning to get blood work done first, a couple of the labs take more than 24 hours. Front office follow through is poor.
One of my prescriptions was held up by needing Dr approval. Once that happened the drugs were switched from brand name to generic. The generic is only available in half the dose I was taking (two for more $$ than one of the brand name) so I need 2 pills for the same total weight of medication. And of course the insurance hasn’t approved it.
I ran out of that drug on Saturday night. I called the Drs office Monday morning, Monday evening (after calling morning and evening Weds - Fri last week). Assistant called again on Tuesday AM to say she had faxed it again. I called the pharmacy 3 hours later. No sign of it. Tuesday night all the phone lines are down. I can't even leave a message with the answering service. That drug runs over $13K a month off insurance.
Highlights
I liked the new Doctor, and he was mad the front office blamed him for not being able to do telemedicine.
The CT scan showed some shrinkage. That’s two positive scans out of a bunch with any good news. But now facing a week off the meds it sucks.
I still have the option of going back to Doctor 9, he is much closer to me geographically. It would be all new paperwork I hate that thought. But I am feeling trapped at the Dr 10 office. I can only contact them by phone and it takes several dropped calls before one is finally answered.
Lowlights
Back to calling them 8 AM tomorrow. If the phone lines are still down I will have to drive up there. Since I've had fever they won't let me in. So I'm writing a note. Trying to be civil.
